Alternative small scale meteorology input to a chemical transport ...

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, adequate modeling of transport, diffusion and chemical transformation
of air pollutants became more and more important. In order to respond to this demand, the air
quality modeling community has searched for the most complete and advanced air quality
models incorporating more sophisticated data. The latest state-of-the-science system, that
represents a powerful air quality modeling and assessment tool, is the Community Multiscale Air
Quality (CMAQ) Modeling system (Byun et al., 1999). It is designed to support air quality
modeling applications ranging from regulatory issues to science inquiries on atmospheric
processes.
The CMAQ system can address tropospheric ozone, acid deposition, visibility, fine
particulate and other air pollutant issues in the context of “one atmosphere” perspective, where
complex interactions between atmospheric pollutants on different scales (continental, regional,
urban) take place. The CMAQ system is the core of the high performance computational
MODELS-3 framework, designed to manage air quality simulations.
The MODELS-3 framework is an advanced computational platform that provides a
sophisticated and powerful modeling environment for the science and regulatory communities.
The framework provides tools to develop and analyze emission control options, integrate
related science components into a state-of-the-art air quality modeling system and apply
graphical and analytical tools for facilitating model applications and evaluations. Descriptions of
the MODELS-3 architecture and CMAQ modeling system are provided in US EPA, 1999 or
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